Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri participated in a meeting with foreign ambassadors, charge d'affaires and heads of foreign and international missions residing in Tehran at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to explain the views of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the Zionist regime’s terrorist attack that martyred Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, in Tehran. While thanking the ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions in Tehran for their presence in the meeting, Bagheri underlined the responsibility of governments and world nations not to remain silent toward the Palestinian issue as one of the worst evils left unresolved from the past century as well as the Israeli occupation and its bloody colonialism of this land and the continued displacement and genocide of an entire nation. Bagheri said that the shameful tragedy that has unfolded in the past ten months in occupied Palestine is not only a product of the cruelty and the sense of superiority of an occupying apartheid regime, but also the result of the sense of impunity on part of criminals based on the unwavering support they enjoy from the US and several western countries and the indifference imposed on the international community, of which a clear sign is the reluctance or inability of the UN Security Council and other regional and international bodies to take effective measures to stop the genocide of Palestinians. He said that the murderous move of the Zionist regime to assassinate Ismail Haniyeh is part of the genocide project against Palestinians by assassinating Palestinian political, intellectual, scientific and cultural elites and leaders inside and outside the occupied territories. Bagheri further pointed to the long dark record of the Israeli regime assassinations in different countries, saying the killings promoted terrorism and spread lawlessness and murder alongside an 80 -year-old evil. The acting foreign minister stressed that the Islamic Republic of Iran, without the slightest doubt, holds the criminal gang ruling occupied Palestine responsible for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh. Bagheri said the Israeli regime's terrorist act to assassinate martyr Haniyeh has undermined regional and international stability and security and the Zionist regime seeks its survival only in warmongering and spreading conflicts among regional countries and Palestinians. The acting foreign minister underlined that the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the simultaneous assassination of Fuad Shukr in Beirut should not be considered as crimes disconnected from the course of developments in occupied Palestine and the wider region, but in line with the numerous atrocities by the regime in Gaza and the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria and stems are from the ideology of the founders and rulers of the occupying regime, who think of murder and terror as something justifiable and holy. Bagheri said Sheikh Ismail Haniyeh was a revered and noble figure in the Islamic and Arab world, a memorizer of the holy Quran and a brave and responsible person, and his cowardly assassination is a clear example of arbitrary killing and gross violation of human rights. Bagheri further underscored that Ismail Haniyeh was attacked in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran while he was an official guest of the Islamic Republic and he was in Iran to participate in the inauguration ceremony of the Iranian president. The acting foreign minister went on to say that the Zionist regime’s assassination of the Hamas leader is actually an unjustified and illegal attack and a violation of the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and this terrorist act, given its nature, intensity and effects, is no less than the illegal use of force, and it is quite clear that such a violation and aggression cannot go unanswered under any circumstances. Bagheri added that the Islamic Republic has a right to respond and is entitled to defend its interests, territorial integrity and sovereign rights, and its response will be definitive and decisive. He referred to the failure and inability of the UN Security Council to issue even a simple statement condemning the terrorist attack and act of aggression by the Zionist regime, saying the unwavering support of the US, Britain and France for the Israeli regime is one of the main obstacles to the effectiveness of the UN in past decades regarding the occupation of Palestine. Bagheri underlined that it’s obvious that under such circumstances, the responsibility and the sovereign duty of the Islamic Republic of Iran with regard to its national security and territorial integrity requires that, at its discretion, the country give an appropriate response to this dangerous and aggressive adventurism.